This week in ridiculous regulations: nuclear debt collection and high airports

The FTC lost another major antitrust case, this time its bid to stop the Microsoft-Activision merger. CPI inflation dropped to 3 percent, though the more accurate core rate remains far too high at 4.8 percent. Meanwhile, agencies issued new regulations ranging from robocalls to rockfish.

 On to the data:

• Agencies issued 61 final regulations last week, after 36 the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every two hours and 45 minutes.
• With 1,608 final regulations so far in 2023, agencies are on pace to issue 3,000 final regulations this year.
• For comparison, there were 3,168 new final regulations in 2022, and 3,257 new final regulations in 2021.
• Agencies issued 44 proposed regulations in the Federal Register last week, after 18 the previous week.
• With 1,117 proposed regulations so far in 2023, agencies are on pace to issue 2,084 proposed regulations this year.
• For comparison, there were 2,044 new proposed regulations in 2022, and 2,094 in 2021.
• Agencies published 426 notices last week, after 348 notices the previous week.
• With 11,967 notices so far in 2023, agencies are on pace to issue 22,326 notices this year.
• For comparison, there were 22,505 notices in 2022, and 20,018 in 2021.
• Last week, 1,899 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 836 pages the previous week.
• The average Federal Register issue in 2023 contains 338 pages.
• With 45,327 pages so far, the 2023 Federal Register is on pace for 84,565 pages.
• For comparison, the 2022 Federal Register totals 80,756 pages, and 2021’s is 74,352 pages. The all-time record adjusted page count (subtracting skips, jumps, and blank pages) is 96,994, set in 2016.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. This recently changed to $200 million. There are nine such rules so far in 2023, none in the last week.
• This is on pace for 17 economically significant regulations in 2023.
• For comparison, there were 43 economically significant rules in 2022, and 26 in 2021. These comparisons will not be apple-to-apple due to the threshold change. This will likely lower this year’s number.
• The total estimated cost of 2023’s economically significant regulations so far ranges from $55.06 billion to $78.22 billion, according to numbers self-reported by agencies.
• For comparison, the running cost tally for 2022’s economically significant rules ranges from net costs of $45.28 billion to $78.05 billion. In 2021, net costs ranged from $13.54 billion to $1992 billion. The exact numbers depend on discount rates and other assumptions.
• There were five regulations meeting the broader definition of “significant” last week, after four the previous week.
• So far this year, there are 137 new regulations meeting the broader definition of “significant.” This is on pace for 256 significant regulations in 2023.
• For comparison, there were 255 such new regulations in 2022, and 387 in 2021.
• So far in 2023, 426 new regulations affect small businesses, on pace for 795. Thirty-seven of them are significant, on pace for 69.
• For comparison, in 2022 there were 912 rules affecting small businesses, 70 of them significant. 2021’s totals were 912 rules affecting small businesses, 101 of them significant.

Highlights from last week’s new final regulations:

• Student loan repayment.
• The EPA is making its cost-benefit analysis for Clean Air Act regulations less transparent to the public.
• Corrections to delayed REAL ID standards for driver’s licenses.
• Testing containment leaks.
• A new IRS rule for carryback of consolidated net operating losses.
• Names for national cemeteries.
• Phasing down hydrofluorocarbons.
• New renewable fuel standards.
• Nuclear facilities debt collection.
• High elevation airport operations.
• Sanctions regarding hostages and wrongful detentions.
• Consumer products and Ohio’s air plan approval.
• Advanced robocall elimination methods.
• Student loans.
• General requirements for the Federal Labor Relations Authority.
• Soybean standards.
• The Federal Reserve is making minor changes to its reserve requirements.
• Rules of practice before the FTC. Given its string of losses in courts, including its own in-house court, one is tempted to wonder about the reasoning behind these changes.
• Visas.
• The FDA is changing the names of some of its dockets.
• Rules for representing others before the Patent and Trademark Office.
• Dusky rockfish.
• National Service Trust Education Awards.

And from last week’s proposed regulations:

• Employee benefits for spouses of deceased separated federal employees.
• A proposed safety zone off North Carolina for hurricanes and tropical storms.
• Grants from the Health and Human Services Department.
• Miners’ exposure to crystalline silica.
• Logging flight time for public aircraft.
• Privacy Act exemptions for Interior Department investigative records.
• The Children and Families Administration has proposed performance standards modifications for natural disasters.
• Changes to intentionally disadvantage people with short-term health insurance.
• Mining the Osage Mineral Estate for oil and gas.
• Robocalls.
• Next generation 911 services.
• Quarantine rules for importing dogs and cats.

For more data, see Ten Thousand Commandments and follow @10KC and @RegoftheDay on Twitter.